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Ivory Coast
Index
Resources
Of the total land area of more than 322,000 square
kilometers,
52 percent was considered agricultural land, or slightly
over 3.6
hectares per capita. Total land area fell into one of two
distinct
agricultural regions: the forest region (about 140,000
square
kilometers) in the south and the drier savanna region
(about
180,000 square kilometers) in the north, where economic
growth has
generally been slower
(see Climate
, ch. 2). The forest
region,
which had higher and more reliable rainfall and better
soils,
produced most export crops. Rainfall in the savanna
averaged about
two-thirds of that in the forest region and was unreliable
from
year to year. In addition, the soils were generally light
and
ranged from medium to poor quality. As a result,
agricultural
yields were low and opportunities for using labor-saving
technology
were limited.
The prevailing system of cultivation for both cereals
and
féculents (starchy foods) was known as shifting
agriculture,
or bush fallow. Fields were cultivated for three to four
years,
after which they were left fallow for periods of up to ten
years to
restore their fertility. To maximize their return on a
given plot,
farmers first cultivated a more exigent crop like yams,
followed it
in subsequent years with less demanding crops like corn,
and
finally planted cassava, after which the plot was left
untilled. In
Côte d'Ivoire, as elsewhere in Africa, population
pressures forced
farmers to reduce the fallow period, leading to diminished
soil
fertility and productivity. The use of chemical
fertilizers was not
common; annual consumption of fertilizers in 1982 was
51,800 tons,
or only 8.5 kilograms per hectare.
As in most of sub-Saharan Africa, farm labor was
usually
manual, without the aid of animals or mechanization. In
1982 there
were 3,200 tractors and 40 harvester-threshers in the
country,
nearly all of which were on large private or
government-owned
plantations. Nearly all agriculture relied on natural
rainfall or,
in the case of paddy rice, rudimentary, gravity-fed
irrigation
systems. Under the 1976-78 development plan, the
government
constructed dams on the Bandama River at Taabo and on the
Sassandra
River at Buyo for irrigation.
Data as of November 1988
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